Why do you support your team?

[TCO]

Newcastle because everybody else here was either a Man United or Liverpool fan. 5 year old me was just getting into football and wanted something different, Shearer had just signed with Newcastle and I remember being mesmerised watching him play, so that was it for me. Fan for life and regularly travel to St. James', as much as possible. Earliest memory was smashing Man United 5-0 too!

Only other team is the New York Giants, was just getting into the sport when I visited New York, went to Giants stadium and adopted them ever since. Much bigger fan now than I was then though and my passion for the Giants has only gotten stronger!

[Pizza]

I like Toronto teams. Leafs, Raptors, Jays. I also like the Bills. I suppose it could be worse if I was from Cleveland, but otherwise yay misery!

I don't really support any club teams in soccer, although I have several teams I root against like Man U, Madrid, and Juventus. Internationally, since Canada is terrible and Scotland hasn't qualified for a World Cup since I've paid attention, I've taken to supporting Ghana. The first game I ever watched was Ghana/Italy in the 2006 World Cup. The Italians looked like jerks and although they were clearly the more talented team it felt like Ghana had a lot of heart and were fun underdogs to get behind. Then they knocked out America which I loved because I was a teenager who didn't like George Bush, and I became a fan for life. Although I'd still root for Canada if they ever matched up in meaningful competition. I support Scotland in European competition because my grandparents are from there.

[Plubby]

I first encountered Tottenham as a youngster on TV and I giggled (as young'uns are wont to do) and thought "Tottenham Hotspur. That's a silly name for a team". As I got older I followed whoever the Australian darling of the day was playing for. Then I came across them again when I was about 9 or 10 and I was like "That's right! I like those guys!" And they've been my team ever since. All because, yup, Tottenham Hotspur is a silly name for a team.

I don't have a "second team" so to speak for association football - but I do have soft spots for AFC Wimbledon (because of an FM game and more recently the Nerdfighter association) and also Leeds because Kewell and Viduka player for them.

A buddy of mine at work got me into college football, and I decided that I would care a lot more if I had a team to follow. I wanted a team that was pretty good, but not a powerhouse (I didn't want to jump onto the biggest bandwagon or i'd have picked an Alabama or whatever). So I picked Boise State because, again, Boise is a silly name for a place.

I have a couple secondary teams in college football - Georgia Tech and Illinois. I also have soft spots for Air Force and LSU, but much less so than the top 3.

I fell in love with ice hockey because of the NHL 2002 demo that was released on a PC Powerplay magazine cover disc. The demo featured Pittsburgh and Colorado, and i've always loved goalkeepers in any sport, and I decided that Patrick Roy was a heaps cooler goaltender than Johan Hedberg. So Colorado was my team, and they've been my team for over ten years now.

I (and i'm sure others too) have always had an inner sports broadcaster. So when I finally turned the corner on Basketball (I used to HATE basketball), I decided that Amar'e Stoudemire was the best name to be able to call as an armchair announcer. It helped that from my time as a Magic: The Gathering player I have friends in New York who are devoted Knicks fans, so the combination of Amar'e and my NYC friends led me to becoming a Knicks fan.

[Sick N Twisted]

Everton, most of my family support Everton so grew up supporting them.

Real Madrid, just loved watching them when I was a kid, so stayed supporting them.

Groningen, girlfriend is from there so started to follow them.

[Fudge]

Man Utd were the first team I saw play football on tv, and I was glued to it apparently. My dad doesn't really support anyone, but prefers United out of everyone and just watches football whenever it's on bbc/itv/. It was the 99 Champions League campaign I first took interest in, and thanks to my newfound support we went on to win the trophy!

My best friend at school supported Leeds (closest team) and used to wear the shirt on non-uniform day, and I hated that shirt (half blue/half yellow iirc), so couldn't possibly support them.

I've been called a glory supporter 'cos I'm not from Manchester, like it's my fault the team I started to like when I was 5/6 just happens to be the most successful English team in my lifetime. But it looks like this might finally be the year I get to prove all those fools wrong!

[Mick]

When I was a kid, the wife in one of my neighbor's families was the daughter of John McKay (first head coach of the Bucs, legendary USC coach). And she had two kids, both who had an assload of video games. From there I gradually grew more and more supportive of the Bucs, going to my first game in '95 (the season finale against the Lions, aka the Barry Sanders show).

Pretty much, the team during my teenage years did the full journey, from jokes to Super Bowl champions, and it's hard to ignore when such a thing happens during those years. I'm pretty happy about the Super Bowl victory when I was a senior in high school. Sure, the team's taken a big crap since then, but it's also fun to be an arm-chair quarterback.

[Pesci]

Liverpool, because from pretty much the minute my step-dad met me (I was 2 years old) he had me in a Liverpool shirt, and I've never questioned it really. So I'm not a glory hunter myself, but I guess you could call me a second generation glory hunter

Support Bristol City a fair bit too, and go to see them when I can - I've been to see 4 games this season which isn't great but enough that I can call myself a fan I feel.

But if I have to choose between them Liverpool win.

Keep my eye out for Bournemouth results and like them to do well because I went to uni there for four years and love the place, but I'd hardly call myself a supporter.

Abroad I tend to favour Inter (because their team was awesome on Ultimate Soccer Manager 98) and Barcelona (again, my Spanish team of choice on late-90s video games, and I have a couple of shirts from holidays abroad) but I've got no real affinity towards them. In Germany I like Dortmund but I'd be lying if I said that wasn't a fairly recent thing. I probably like Ajax better than all of those, always have, got a shirt from the nineties which my dad gave to me.

My women's team is Turbine Potsdam from Germany. I can't even remember how that came about, it was something ridiculous between me and a mate, but yeah, I keep an eye out for how they're doing in competitions and follow their page on Facebook. I was actually a little gutted when they sold star striker Yuki Ogimi to Chelsea in the summer, despite never actually having watched a full match >_>

[Liam]

I've got a variety of teams for each sport.

Fulham is because my uncle used to live down the road from CC. I had gone through stages of 'supporting' Leeds (Chapman), Man United and Newcastle (Alan Shearer), before deciding I needed to support someone somewhat more local - around the age of 11, I think.

I have always followed Wycombe and Luton for some reason (less so now). Brighton and Dagenham get a look in due to having lived in both places.

Outside of England, I've always had a soft spot for Nigeria. Not sure why - probably the years of Amokachi and Okocha.

I've also always preferred Celtic and Real Madrid over other teams in those divisions.

I support the New Orleans Saints due to a family friend buying me a cap of theirs on a trip to America.

I support Calgary Flames because my Dad now lives there. I used to follow Tampa Bay Lightning, Pittsburgh Penguins, Detroit Red Wings and Florida Panthers when I wasn't really supporting anyone.

Wigan Warriors were generally my team in Rugby League, due to Martin Offiah/Jason Robinson.

Sure there are other sports, but that pretty much covers it.

[EddieG]

If I supported clubs because of stuff family/friends gave me, I'd support the Cleveland Indians, Aston Villa, Man U and Leeds.. people have some twisted ideas of presents.

[DMN in the House]

As far as American leagues go, I basically support all the Los Angeles teams. The only team I support that aren't in Los Angeles are the Oakland Raiders, who were in LA when I was growing up.

For the Premier League, I support Newcastle because someone once told me that they were the Oakland Raiders of the Premier League. Plus I drink Newcastle Brown Ale, so that's a plus.

EDIT: Oh, and I ended up supporting UCLA over USC because UCLA won a national championship in basketball right when I was getting into college sports, and then, well, Skip Hicks and Cade McNown were awesome. Besides, everyone and their brother in this town supports Trojan football, and fuck that.

[Rafael]

Football : Vasco - My grandfather is also a Vasco fan, and he told me to watch the 2003 State Championship Finals. They won the state championship (then stopped winning anything at all for 8 years, getting relegated in the process), and I've been a fan ever since.

Newcastle - Alan Shearer, but was still in doubt because Henry was so class at Arsenal at the time. Then Michael Owen came, and I loved that movie they made with Newcastle at the time, so....yeah.

Basketball : Charlotte Bobcats - I always liked to play with them in my NBA Live/NBA 2K games since they were always shit and it was cool to build them up. Started really following last season. And we've been ''good'' this year!

I just started following the Green Bay Packers, so I don't know what the future holds for this one yet.

Edited February 1, 2014 by RafaelFms